{"nrhp_refnum":"71000139","name":"Old Fresno Water Tower","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"2444 Fresno St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fresno","county":"Fresno County","state":"CA","lat":36.739065491000076,"lon":-119.78724889099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-10-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick water tower at 2444 Fresno Street in Fresno, California, completed in November 1894 and owned by the City of Fresno.","why_significant":"The nomination cites the tower's architecture and engineering. It was designed by Chicago architect George W. Mayer, modeled on the Chicago Water Tower, and served Fresno until 1963. Its value now lies in its graceful beauty, symmetry and stately nineteenth-century charm.","narrative":"Rising about 100 feet above Fresno, this brick water tower was completed in November 1894 and held 250,000 gallons in its tank. Chicago architect George W. Mayer was commissioned in 1891 to design it, basing his plan on the Chicago Water Tower, which had survived the great fire there. His design even provided space for a library, but that part was never carried out, and only a second floor with a very high ceiling was built, reached by a winding staircase. The tower is made of ordinary red brick, with each layer stepped in to give a beehive effect. It has a thick inner wall over two feet thick, an outer wall of about fourteen inches, and a passage about three feet wide between them. The surface is painted. The tower served the city continuously until 1963, when the pumping machinery was no longer adequate. It is now valued for its graceful beauty and symmetry, and it remains in excellent, unaltered condition on its original site.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":"George W. Mayer, a Chicago architect","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as kept in excellent condition, unaltered and on its original site; it no longer stores water, having been in constant use until 1963 when the pumping machinery became inadequate.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.235177-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/71000139.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000139/d0a8ed4260-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000139/d0a8ed4260-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Bobak Ha'Eri","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-0725-CA-FresnoWaterTower-F.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bobak Ha'Eri</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-0725-CA-FresnoWaterTower-F.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858675","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Fresno_Water_Tower","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15263783"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/fresno-county/old-fresno-water-tower-71000139/"}